Project Editor: Susannah Hall, UCARE, 2008

Chemistry Clubs of UNL

The University of Nebraska has seen many different chemistry clubs come and go over the years. The department was influential in establishing the first American Chemical Society chapter west of the Mississippi in 1895. The Chemistry Club at NU around the beginning of the century included professors and students. The Rho chapter of Phi Lamda Upsilon Chemistry Honors Society was chartered in 1922 and is still active. J.R. Demuth established and served as an advisor to the ACS Student Affiliate in 1961; the chapter is currently active, although it has cycled between active and inactive. The following pictures exist from the first Chemistry Club, from the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

Another society that has been important to the nation, department and university, though not necessarily a chemistry club, was Sigma Xi, the scientific research honorary. It was founded at Cornell in 1886, and the UNL chapter was chartered in 1897 by Erwin H. Barbour (Geology), Charles E. Bessey (Botany), Laurence Bruner (Entomology), Albert L. Candy (Mathematics), Fred W. Card (Horticulture), Ellory W. Davis (Mathematics), T. Littleton Lyon (Agriculture), Hudson H Nicholson (Chemistry), Robert B. Owens (Electrical Engineering), Charles R. Richards (Mechanical Engineering), Oscar V.P. Stout (Civil Engineering), Goodwin D. Swezey (Astronomy), and Henry B. Ward (Zoology). Today there are 75,000 members nationally, nearly 200 of whom have won Nobel prizes.